Canada Makes First Arrest for Terrorist Financing
By Andrew Cochran
Last November 2, I posted on a report on the 1985 Air India bombing from consultants at Deloitte & Touche who were asked to interview institutions and organizations that report large cash transactions, suspicious transactions and cross-border wire transactions to FinTRAC, the lead Canadian government agency on such issues (analogous to FinCEN in the U.S.). The report (download here) described FinTRAC as a "big black hole" and noted that Canada had never brought a single terrorist financing case: "A common theme amongst all those interviewed is the fact that terrorist financing is not on anyone’s radar screen." There was virtually no reaction to the report by Canadian officials.
Well, Canada finally has a terrorist financing case on its hands, involving a Sri Lankan-born Canadian man suspected of raising funds for the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka. Now we'll find out something about the quality of the transaction data provided to FinTRAC from financial institutions and to law enforcement agencies.
It hasn't been easy to prosecute terrorist financing cases in the U.S., which has the most stringent and detailed set of counter-terrorist financing compliance rules in the world, but the record of convictions is pretty good. Let's hope the Canadians are ready for courtroom scrutiny of their system for the first time.
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